iPads for Parents @ RMH (CSR2011 Executive Learning Exchange)

The process we are planning is to start with an 8 iPads pilot where donations were raised on Oct 25, 2010 at Hamburger University (McDonald's Corporate University) during the annual Learning Leaders conference produced by the Executive Learning Exchange.

The next step is to recruit a small team of corporate learning leaders to organize & conduct a series of focus groups with parents at Chicagoland RMHs to determine a suite of apps. Ideally, the first, kick-off meeting to be in December 2010.

Pilot Outcome(s) Envisioned:

A set-up guide and tutorials will be created for both the RMH staff members and for parents who could check out iPads to use during their stay.

If the pilot is successful, in June 2011 the Executive Learning Exchange & RightStart4Kids.org will plan to hold a 2nd annual Gala Fundraising Dinner (this one benefiting RMHCCNI) downtown in Cathedral Hall, one of the finest dining rooms in the city at the University Club of Chicago.

On September 26 for the 10th Annual Chicagoland Learning Leaders Conference hosted by McDonald's Hamburger University, 2012 RightStart4Kids presented 16 iPads to Doug Porter's RMHC-CNI team. With their four houses in Chicagoland, 16 iPads seemed sufficient and we plan to donate more iPads to other houses (there are 300 worldwide). Here are some photos from September 26, 2011:

On June 26, 2011, over 100 Chicagoland Learning & Talent Leaders gathered in one of the finest dining rooms at the University Club of Chicago, to help raise funding to donate iPads for Parents @ Ronald McDonald Houses. After event expenses, $15,000 was raised to purchased 29 iPads. Kate Rother & Jill Denman volunteered by organizing an fundraising event auction with some super cool gifts from U.S. Cellular.

Tom Nguyen & Dirk Tussing dropped off two more iPads at RMH-Riley Hospital (Indianapolis, IN) so the pilot expanded to 3 RMHs. We dropped off these two iPads for the pilot on May 21, 2011. Partnering with Central Indiana Learning Leaders we have volunteer four times a year to cook Saturday Brunch at their smaller house IN RILEY HOSPITAL. Below is Beth and her entire family helping.

Tom Nguyen & Dirk Tussing dropped off two iPads at RMH New Comer Children's Hospital so the pilot expanded to 2 RMHs. We dropped off these two iPads for the pilot on 23-APR-2011 at 5444 South Drexel Ave Chicago, IL.

Eric Sanders helped us create a brief, 10-question survey to collected feedback from parents and help improve the iPad for Ronald McDonald House Program (click here to see the 10 questions we came up with to collect feedback).

Tom Nguyen & Dirk Tussing meet with Doug Porter's team at RMHC-CNI office and agreed on the pilot approach. We agreed that RMH near Advocate Hope Children's Hospital (4410 West 93rd Street Oak Lawn, IL USA) would be our first house. We dropped off the initial iPads for the pilot on 19-FEB-2011.

We ordered three refurbished iPads from Apple's online store. Since the iPads were being used for RMHC-CNI, Apple didn't charge any state sales taxes or shipping. Apple's current price for refurbished iPads is $429 (WiFi 16GB).

We pre-loaded the pilot iPads with a few apps that our pilot team provided input for.

We would like to identify 6-8 corporate learning leader volunteers to help conduct a focus-group centric pilot to identify a suite of iPad apps & job aids. If you are intersted, please email Dirk.Tussing@learningexecutive.com or info@rightstart4kids.org.

We formally started this project as Corporate Social Responsibility partnership with the Chicagoland Learning Leaders during their annual conference. The first 2 iPads were donated by the Executive Learning Exchange and presented to Doug Porter (CEO RMHCCNI) and Pat Harris, Charlie Strong, & Diana Thomas (3 corporate officers with McDonald's Corporation). Six more iPads were donated by The CARA Group, the platinum sponsor for the conference.

Additional donations made to Ronald McDonals's House Charities during the conference was the author's royalties from giving all 300 conference attendees complementary copies of Pat Harris' book, None of Us is As Good As All of Us: How McDonald's Prospers by Embracing Inclusion and Diversity. Pat signed everyone's copy to add her personal touch.

The support from the Chicagoland Learning Leaders' community partnering with RS4K has been amazing. Maureen Getcliffe (Dean at McDonald's Corporation's Hamburger University) suggested to Dirk that we should cook a meal at a RMH. So with the help of Karyl Kerulis who secured a weekend date, we quickly had enough volunteers to cook the entire weekend.

In 2011 four dates have been reserved for us to cook at RMH Lincoln Park; they are: 2/19/2011, 5/21/2011, 8/20/2011, & 11/19/2011.

While traveling we like to visit other RMH to gain insight on whether the Chicago request is unique to the United States. We spent quite a bit of time with Peter Schneider (Executive Director at RMH Randwick).

Peter shared with us that the parents in the Sydney Houses tend to spend a lot of time on WebMD and would find the iPad's easy-to-use user interface better for many parents than using a mouse. It turns out many of the families come from rural parts of Australia and don't use computers much.

Tom and I then headed to Melbourne and received another warm reception from Parkville's Executive Director, Peter Bishop. Peter provided very similar support and encouragement we heard at RMH Randwick.

On May 27, 2010, Dirk Tussing, Tom Nguyen and Cami Jacobson met with Doug Porter in Oak Brook, IL exploring how we can help build the world's largest RMH scheduled to open in 2012. We explained that on Oct 25th, the Executive Learning Exchange plans to purchase 250-300 copies of Pat Harris' book where 100% of her author royalties are donated to RMHC, but we wanted to explore helping in a more significant mannner. Doug thought parents staying at the RMH tend to be eager to research on WebMD and other internet resources and thought iPads might be easier for them to use.